John Donoghue (neuroscientist)

Professor John P. Donoghue is the founding Director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, based at Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland.

Professional career

Professor Donoghue is a neuroscientist best known for having developed an innovative brain-computer interface 'BrainGate' to restore movement for people with paralysis.

He founded the Brown Institute of Brain Science at Brown University (Rhode Island, USA) where he maintains a professorship. He also holds an adjunct professorship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and is a visiting professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Switzerland. Professor Donoghue was also a co-founder of an early neurotechnology startup company, Cyberkinetics.

Recognition

In 2013 Professor Donoghue received the first Israel B.R.A.I.N. (Breakthrough Research And Innovation in Neurotechnology) prize, along with Arto Nurmikko and Leigh Hochberg, for the BrainGate neurotechnology. BrainGate was also recognised by the German Zülch (zoolk) prize in 2007, the Roche-Nature Medicine 2010, and Schrödinger Prizes 2012.

Professor Donoghue is a fellow of several academies including the US Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Inventors.

He has spoken worldwide, including lectures at the World Economic Forum, the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Science and an Alfred Nobel Symposium.

He was also a member of the National Institutes of Health Committee for The White House BRAIN Initiative.

Education

John Donoghue earned a master's degree in Anatomy from the University of Vermont in 1976 and a PhD from Brown University in 1979.